Why the study?
Does being a college athlete affect life expectancy or cause of death compared to non-athletes?
Does being a college athlete affect life expectancy or cause of death compared to non-athletes?
Being a varsity college athlete does not appear to significantly alter long-term life expectancy or cause of death compared to non-athletes.
No longevity difference does not alter athlete counseling; leaves open confounding by selection in observational cohorts.
• When 629 athletes were compared with 583 non-athletes with approximately the same college environment, there appeared to be no significant difference in life expectancy, cause of death, or the type of death. The criterion of being called an athlete in this survey was to have been a varsity-letter winner. This particular study is in agreement with other recent studies of a similar nature.
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Henry J. Montoye (1956) studied this question.
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